804 PHYSIOLOGY 



ANALYSES OF BILE (HUMAN) 



From a biliary fistula (Yeo and Herrmm) From the gall-bladder (Hoppe-Seyler) 



in 100 parts 



Mucin and pigments . 0-148 Mucin . . . .1-29 



Sodium taurocholate . . 0-055 Sodium tanrocholate . . 0-87 



Sodium glycooholate . . 0-165 Sodium glycocholate . . 3-03 



Cholesterin . . . I Soaps. . .1-39 



Lecithin . . 0-038 Cholesterin . .0-35 



Fats . . J Lecithin . . . 0-53 



Inorganic salts . . . 0-840 Fats ... .0-73 



Water 98-7 



During its stay in the bladder the bile is concentrated by the 

 loss of water and by the addition to it of mucin or nucleo-albumen, 

 derived from the cells lining the bladder. Of the other constituents 

 of bile, the pigments must be regarded simply as waste products. 

 They pass into the intestine and are there converted by the processes 

 of bacterial reduction into stercobilin, which is excreted for the most 

 part with the faeces, a small proportion being absorbed into the 

 blood-vessels and turned out in a more or less altered condition as 

 the pigments of the urine. From the point of view of digestion, 

 the important constituents of bile are the bile salts ; with the lecithin 

 and cholesterin held in solution by these salts. The time -relations 

 of the secretion, as well as of the flow of bile into the intestine in 

 connection with the processes of digestion, can be learnt from animals 

 in which the bile is conducted to the outside of the body by means 

 of a permanent fistula. For this purpose Pawlow has devised the 

 following operation : In the dog the abdomen is opened, and the 

 common bile-duct sought as it passes through the intestinal wall. 

 The orifice of the duct, with a piece of the surrounding mucous 

 membrane . is cut out of the wall of the intestine, and the aperture 

 thus made sutured. The excised portion of mucous membrane, with 

 the opening of the duct, is then sewn on to the surface of the duodenum, 

 and the loop of duodenum at this point is stitched into the abdominal 

 wound. After healing, the natural orifice of the bile-duct is thus 

 made to open on the surface of the abdomen. 



In an animal treated in this way the flow of bile from the fistula 

 is found to run parallel to the pancreatic secretion. Although smaller 

 in amount, it rises and falls with the latter. Thus a meal of meat 

 produces a large flow of bile, a meal of carbohydrates only a small 

 flow. Moreover, beginning almost immediately after taking food, 

 it attains its maximum with the pancreatic juice in the third hour 

 and then rapidly declines. 



In the production of this flow of bile two factors may be involved : 

 (1) the emptying of the gall-bladder; (2) an increased secretion of 

 the bile. In order to determine the relative importance to be ascribed 



